A social network refers to a set of social entities that interact and exchange information in a social relationship. Social entities include, for example, people, teams, groups, organizations, and countries, while social relationships refer to friendship, employment, or other relationships between these social entities. Dialogues between members of the social network, such as exchanges, promises, commitments, and other interactions that are necessary for a common business purpose or other activity, form and develop the social relationships between each entity in the social network.
Researchers, business managers, executives, social network participants, and other individuals and entities with a vested interest in the efficiency and success of a particular social network are concerned with monitoring and improving social relationships so as to optimize performance on the part of individuals and across the entire network. Traditional techniques for monitoring social relationships rely on manual data collection, such as questionnaires, interviews, observations, and self-assessment surveys, which are fraught with inaccuracies, unreliability, and subjectivity. While technological innovations have improved upon these manual techniques and now afford limited electronic monitoring capabilities, a continuing need exists for improved data gathering and interpretation techniques that automatically and objectively characterize the interactions between and among individuals and groups.